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Regarding The Tribune article "Bare shoulders earn failing-grade for BYU-Idaho student's art project" (Dec. 2): I feel that BYU-Idaho has a right to encourage decency, yet I feel its faculty and specifically the art department deserve a reprimand for being so vile toward student Waverly Giles.
The young lady is an Oregon native and her artwork was tasteful. It wasn't fully nude and even she cited Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" as an example of tasteful art. In that work, "Liberty" is depicted as a bare-breasted, barefoot woman (the Goddess of Liberty) holding the flag in one hand and a bayoneted musket with the other. That was meant to symbolize the struggles of the French Revolution. That art is on display in the prestigious Louvre Museum in Paris.
Giles' work is modest by our 21st century standards. All it showed was a photo of a beautiful woman with colorful paint on her face and cropped just below the collarbone. I really wish the university and the professor would give Giles another chance. The tasteful depiction of the human form has been celebrated for centuries as genuine art.
James A. Marples
Provo